Now that Potter's out of the Picture?
by lezonne
Summary: After a fight with Harry during the last Quidditch game of the year, Ginny wanders off alone. But Malfoy followed her, and he's not acting quite like his Death Eater- self tonight. Sixth year, notes inside. Written for the "Who, What, When, Where Competition" and a few boot camps. Romance.


**A/n: **This is written for the "Who, What, When, Where Competition" associated with four key items: The last Quidditch match of the year (time), a cloak (object), under the beech tree (place) and Draco Malfoy (character).

Also written for "_The Pairing Set Boot Camp_" pairing 22: Ginny/Draco

Written for "_Your Favorite Hogwarts House Competition_" prompt #47: pretty eyes.

Written for "_50 Ways to Say Goodbye Challenge_"

Please note that this does clash with what happened during sixth year quite a bit. For the sake of this one-shot, let's just say that Harry is looking for Horcrux's but the Death Eater's don't get into Hogwarts and Dumbledore doesn't die.

* * *

We lost the Quidditch match. That's the first thing that set Harry off.

The second happened when Ginny said something under her breath that he completely misinterpreted. Instead of letting her explain however, he blew up at her. With the stress of everything going on lately, what with Horcrux's and his destiny creeping up, Harry hadn't been in the best of moods lately.

Sixth year was off to a bad start. Malfoy kept getting under everyone's skin, which just continued to push Harry closer to the edge. The blonds constant jabs, remarks and overall childish behavior got to Harry a bit more each day, and Ginny watched it happen. Problem was Harry wouldn't let her help him anymore.

And then he snapped at her. They were already on rough ground as far as their barely-there relationship went, but apparently Harry really wanted nothing to do with her. Looking back now Ginny wasn't sure if his rough words were due to the stress of the entire situation or his lack of admiration towards her. Either way, it hurt.

And of course, Malfoy was right there when it happened. Neither of them noticed him at the time, but he heard everything. Ginny didn't waste time after his insults to hear what he had to say, and instead bolted out.

The argument happened just outside the changing rooms for the Quidditch players. Seeing as Ginny had joined the team earlier that year, it was expected that she would be down there. But Harry was looking for solitude, and wasn't overly excited when she showed up. He turned and barked at her, his emotions spilling out from every contour of his mind. He said things he really shouldn't have, and it left Ginny both angry and hurt.

Good thing it was just after the game that they argued, or Gryffindor would've been down two players before the awful game even began. They lost to Slytherin for the House Cup, something that Malfoy of course wouldn't let go of.

He actually railed after her down to the Black Lake, finding the woman upset. It was barely an hour after the game.

"I see you're little relationship isn't all it's cracked up to be," he drawled, keeping his distance from the woman. She whirled around at the sound of his voice, having not heard him approach.

"Get out of here Malfoy," she spat, turning away from him again. It was dark, but her eyes were wet and she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry. She couldn't.

"Actually I think I'll stay, Little Weasley." She heard his shoes crunching the dirt as he walked, and soon enough he was in front of her, a few feet away. The moon outlined his silhouette. Night fell almost immediately after the game, which had run long. Everyone would be back inside the castle by now.

She felt a bit unnerved knowing she was out there all alone with him, but then shoved the thought away. Rumor had it Malfoy wasn't fairing too well this year. He was troubled, and often completely out of it. That's what happened when you worked for the Dark Lord; you lost your mind. You had to if you thought joining forces with him was a good idea.

"What do you want?" she spat, cringing at the sound of her voice. Merlin, she sounded pathetic. Her voice was strained and scratchy from crying. Even if he couldn't see the glistening lines on her face from her tears, he would know exactly what was up.

The blond shrugged. "I thought I'd stop by and see you. You're little argument with Potter sounded rather… heated."

"You were listening!?"

"Oh, Weaselette, I'm sure anyone nearby was listening. You two were loud enough."

She glanced away from him. "Shouldn't you be up with your house celebrating or something? You lot beat Gryffindor; you should be eccentric. That doesn't happen often for you."

His expression soured a hair, and she made sure that she knew where her wand was. One could never tell what exactly Draco Malfoy was up to. "I can celebrate when I get back to the castle; we'll be partying all night. I thought I'd come see you first."

"You already said that. Now, I'll ask again Malfoy, what do you want?"

He smirked. "You and Potter had quite the spat."

"That's none of your business."

"Oh, but it is when I could hear it. I believe he told you to _fuck off _or something?"

"Shut up!" She stood, stepping out from under the tree. His eyes stayed trained on her as she moved. "It's none of your concern. Now leave me alone!"

He didn't need to move as he continued speaking. "I believe he told you that he's tired of being suffocated? He's stressed, he needs time to himself that you can't give to him, while your brother gave him too much space? He's looking for help but he can't find it from the people he asks? Sounds like the lot of you are pretty shitty friends."

"Would you shut up!?" She spun on him, drawing her wand. "You don't know anything Malfoy! You don't know what goes through Harry's mind at night. You don't know what he's dealing with. You don't understand all the things that he has to juggle and try to balance and handle! And your constant jabs and comments don't help! Malfoy, just butt out. No one needs you around!"

He didn't look nearly as offended by her words as he should. In fact he looked fairly untouched by most everything she said. Of course nothing Ginny said could affect him; he didn't listen to what other people had to say about things as it was. His ego was too big for that.

"I know exactly what Potter's going through Weaselette, probably even better than you do. Don't for a moment think that just because I'm against you that I don't see what you're doing."

Briefly his comment caught her off guard. He openly admitted to being a Death Eater just then. Most students tried to keep that under wraps for fear of being turned over to the Ministry. But lately the Ministry was sketchy, and you couldn't tell who to trust and who to avoid. Maybe Malfoy just thought he didn't have anything to fear.

"You know?" she asked at length, eyes narrowing. The question really wasn't if he knew they were plotting Voldemort's downfall, but how much he knew.

"Everyone knows," he replied with a scoff. "That's only been Potter's destiny for _years_."

So he didn't know very much. Good. Even if Harry upset her, she would never give up on him. He was the greater good in things after all, even if he was a bit stretched at the moment. Even if he was a jerk earlier and broke her heart, she'd still end up fighting for his cause, for the good side. She couldn't imagine switching sides.

"But we're not talking about Potter's destiny, are we?" He continued speaking when she didn't pick up the conversation, and reluctantly brown eyes looked up at him again. She couldn't decide what he wanted out of this little chat. "We're talking about your lover's spat."

"You mean our break up?" she snapped sourly, her tone filled with venom. "And no Malfoy, we're not. My relationship status is none of your concern."

"And why is that?"

She blinked, looking more and more surprised by the minute. "Because it doesn't matter to you. I'm not with Harry, so there. No go on then, have your jokes and jabs about it. But just so you know I'm not happy about this. And I'm going to completely ignore you while you talk."

"I doubt you're going to do that Weasley, when you hear what I have to say."

"Try me."

Ginny practically jumped out of her skin when in one swooping motion he moved to sit beside her. She couldn't believe that he was actually daring to get so close to her. She knew he'd start screaming about germs or something in a minute. For a moment she wished she was Hermione; Malfoy wouldn't get within a _foot _of her.

"I think you're too good for Potter."

Now she knew he was messing with her. "Oh please Malfoy, you think I'm no better than a rat."

He shrugged. "How would you know?" Reaching out a hand, he lightly flicked her temple and she retracted at the motion. He was touching her now?

The world must be upside down today. Somehow Slytherin won _and _Malfoy was touching her.

"Because I know _you_," she replied, glaring at him. "You hate me, my friends, and pretty much everyone. And I'm one of the last people you want to associate with. Now quit playing around! What do you want?"

He smirked, sliding a hand under her chin. She moved to slap his hand away but quickly enough he had her chin tilted up, and her hand froze midair. He was looking down at her with an expression she had never seen before, and her breath quickened. What the hell did he think he was doing?

Although, she couldn't help thinking that he had _really_ pretty eyes… they were thin silver disks that she could melt into. She'd never really taken the time before to look at them…

His lips were on her own before she could comprehend what was happening. Instantly she knew this was wrong, but couldn't stop herself from responding to his lips. This was Malfoy for Merlin's sake! They were at the brink of war, standing on opposite sides, and yet he had the audacity to do this!?

He pulled away after only a moment, leaning away from the ginger. Her hand had fallen back to her side sometime during her kiss session, and now she lifted the same arm up to touch her lips, rubbing light fingers over them.

Ginny wasn't entirely sure what to think.

The blond stood after several moments of silence, saying nothing more as he turned and left. On his way he undid and dropped his cloak. Although Ginny watched she couldn't open her mouth to respond, and simply watched the piece of fabric fall down in his wake, blowing in the breeze.

It felt like hours before she stood. Her legs were like jelly after the kiss and her mind was in utter disarray, but the most profound thought in her mind was that she was cold. She cursed as she grabbed Malfoy's cloak, which was several inches too long, and removed the Slytherin badge with a flick of her wand. She could only imagine the controversy that would arise is she showed up in her house common room with _that_ emblem gleaming. She'd be labeled a traitor in seconds.

The walk back to Hogwarts was eerie, and she started wishing that she'd gotten up earlier to avoid walking all alone. At least if she left a few minutes after Malfoy had it wouldn't have been as cold, and she wouldn't have been all alone on the walk back. It was cold and creepy outside.

Shoving her hands into the pockets of the cloak she discovered a piece of paper. Using the light from her wand as she walked she pulled out the scrap, opening it up to read the inscription. She didn't think it would be much of anything until she read the words printed there.

_Don't assume I'm bad just because of who I stand by. I've never said that I supported him. I haven't supported Voldemort in a long time. There's a difference between support and fear._

_Don't assume things about me when you don't even know me, little Weasel. _

Her hand locked tightly around the note as she walked, and eventually she ended up shoving it back down into her pocket. The words echoed in her head as she walked, wondering why he ever wrote anything down for her to find at all.

He had a point though; she didn't really know him, and he certainly didn't really know them. But why would he kiss her? There was some sort of underlying message there, one that Ginny couldn't see too clearly. In fact she was certain what his motivation and thought process was at all.

Draco Malfoy was a tricky character to understand. And now, deep down, Ginny found herself hoping that she did indeed get to learn more about the blond. She had a gut feeling that maybe his words were true.

Maybe Malfoy wasn't as bad as he looked.

* * *

**A/n:** Hope you enjoyed! This is my first Draco/Ginny, so let me know what you thought :) This was quite enjoyable to write.


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